Concerns have been raised about the physical design of USB-C, as the connector seems a little fragile with a hollow plug and a delicate tab in the socket. In contrast, Apple’s Lightning uses a sturdy thick metal plug that is far more resilient. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see how well Type-C accessories hold up to wear and tear over a year or more.
More pressingly, there’s been a lot of worry about the unregulated state of the USB-C standard, which has led to a number of dodgy and just plain dangerous accessories hitting the market. Some, through the use of unsupported voltage levels, have fried the host device.
This has led to drastic measures such as Amazon banning certain USB-C cables from its store – specifically “Any USB-C (or USB Type-C) cable or adapter product that is not compliant with standard specifications issued by ‘USB Implementers Forum Inc.”
